Last checked at 
FRANKFURT, Nov 1 (Reuters) - U.S. Cable company LibertyGlobal has appointed a European mobile chief as itpushes into wireless services to meet growing demand fortelevision, broadband, mobile and fixed-line services -so-called "quad play" - from one provider.
The quad move could be a threat to operators in the crowdedGerman sector as they scramble for a share of Europe's largesttelecoms market.
Liberty said on Friday it had appointed Graeme Oxby asmanaging director of its European Mobile operations.
Oxby was director of Mobile & Home Phone at Virgin Media,which Liberty earlier this year bought in a stock-and-cash dealworth about $15.8 billion.
Liberty has been testing the waters as a so-called mobilevirtual network operator (MVNO) in Europe, including in Britain,Belgium and Germany - where it owns the No. 2 cable companyUnitymedia KabelBW - but has not made a serious push so far.
MVNOs are operators who rent access on bigger rivals'networks and tend to sell cheaper mobile plans, often without along-term contract and targeted at youth or ethnic niches.
In Britain, Virgin Media offers superfast wireless broadbandservices to businesses, which are increasingly looking to buyfixed, mobile and other telecom services from a single providerto save costs and simplify billing.
"In this new role Graeme will further develop LibertyGlobal's core mobile network to become a full MVNO operator inmost of its European operations," the company said on Friday.
CABLE GOES MOBILE
A rise in demand for "quad play" services was the mainreason that British telecoms group Vodafone splashed out7.7 billion euros ($10.4 billion) to buy Kabel Deutschland,Germany's biggest cable operator, this year.
Unitymedia KabelBW's chief executive Lutz Schueler has saidthat while the German Liberty unit had not made a serious pushinto mobile, such a move was an option.
Unitymedia had just under 200,000 mobile subscribers at theend of the second quarter in a market of around 114 millionsubscribers. It will release third-quarter results next week.
Analysts at Citigroup last week said in a note opportunitiescould emerge for MVNOs from Telefonica Deutschland's acquisition of KPN's E-Plus, which was announced thissummer and is now being evaluated by the European Commission.
"We expect Telefonica Deutschland/E-Plus will be mandated tooffer some form of a wholesale reference offer to be availableto MVNOs/service providers and on a national roaming basis (incase a new entrant emerges)," they wrote in a client note.
Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone are the biggestmobile operators in Germany, with a market share of around 35percent each, while Telefonica Deutschland and KPN's E-Plusshare around 30 percent.
Deutsche Telekom is in fierce competition with cablecompanies that have upgraded their lines designed originally toonly deliver TV to homes so that they can also carry Internetand voice calls. They offer Internet at speeds that are oftenfive times faster than the competing services from telecomoperators and have snatched clients from Deutsche Telekom, whichstill has more than 40 percent of the German fixed-line market.
